LOS ANGELES (Zap2it.com) - After the day Jack Bauer had last season on "24," the guy deserves a break. He won't get any in the show's second-season premiere.

The season premiere on Tuesday, Oct. 29 will air commercial-free, thanks to a sponsorship deal FOX struck with Ford. Which means that viewers of the real-time thriller won't have to wonder what happens to the characters in the two or three minutes during ad breaks.

FOX Entertainment president Gail Berman also dropped a few more clues on the new season Sunday (July 21) at the TV Critics Association press tour in Pasadena.

The series picks up about a year after last season ended with the murder of Jack's wife, Teri (Leslie Hope). Jack (Kiefer Sutherland) has left the Counterterrorism Unit, and his daughter, Kim (Elisha Cuthbert), pretty much wants nothing to do with him.

Jack is trying to repair his own life and his relationship with his daughter when he gets a call from David Palmer (Dennis Haysbert), who has since won election to the White House. Palmer has a problem, and he needs Jack's help to, as the network's press release puts it, "stop another terrorist plot with global implications."

Most key cast members will return for the second season, including Sarah Clarke as CTU mole Nina, Carlos Bernard as CTU agent Tony Almeida, Penny Johnson Jerald as Palmer's wife, Sherry, and Xander Berkeley as Bauer's former CTU boss, George Mason. Sarah Wynter ("The 6th Day" ) is joining the cast as a potential new love interest for Bauer.